February 1, 2005
Noise Free America
For immediate release
Contact:
Ted Rueter
877-NOISE-NO
[email protected]
Madison: The Speed Channel has won this month’s Noisy Dozen award from Noise Free America for promoting a culture of noise, rudeness, and aggressive behavior. The Speed Channel unabashedly supports loud car stereos, loud motorcycles, and loud NASCAR races.
“The Speed Channel’s schedule is a celebration of noise, hypermasculinity, and violence,” said Ted Rueter, Noise Free America’s director. “Their line-up is full of programs such as ‘American Muscle Car,’ ‘Harley Davidson Sportsters,’ ‘American Thunder,’ ‘Monster Jam,’ ‘NASCAR Live,’ ‘AMA Formula Xtreme,’ ‘Autoerotica,’ ‘USAR Hooters Pro Cup,’ and “Speed Freaks.'” A promo for “American Muscle Car” states that “it’s a great time to be a car owner” because “today’s sound technology will be replaced” by even louder gadgets!
Rueter notes that the Speed Channel champions “the complete hypermasculinity lifestyle: chauvinism, narcissism, he-man competitions, brute force, and violence. The Speed Channel is at the heart of testosterone nation and the noise-industrial complex.”
Besides contributing to the decline of America’s social fabric, the Speed Channel also promotes an explosion of noise. The Speed Channel glamorizes loud, noisy, disruptive motor equipment that rumbles through America’s neighborhoods. In the last 15 years, noise levels in major US cities have risen six-fold. The EPA estimates that 138 million Americans live in communities with excessive noise.
The escalation of noise in the United States has severe consequences. Excessive noise is associated with chronic fatigue, sleep deprivation, hearing loss, and aggressive behavior. The Census Bureau reports that noise is American’ number one complaint about their neighborhoods, and the main reason they wish to move.
Noise Free America is a national citizens group opposed to noise pollution. Its web site is http://noisefree.org. Past “winners” of the award include Governor Jesse Ventura, Echo Manufacturing, and Circuit City.